Should GB&I have had different pairings?

By Alistair Tait

Saturday, September 12, 2009

ARDMORE, Pa. – It’s always easy to second guess a captain’s decisions in the Walker Cup. In fact, it’s half the fun.

Colin Dalgleish’s decision not to play Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Haines together drew questions from one English Golf Union official here at Merion. Fleetwood and Haines play foursomes golf together for England and have been pretty successful in recent years.

Fleetwood, runner-up in last year’s British Amateur Championship, sat out the opening session. Haines teamed up with Scotland’s Gavin Dear and they lost on the last green to Peter Uihlein and Nathan Smith.

Of course, the EGU official doesn’t have the same information as Dalgleish. The GB&I captain has to base his decisions on how his players perform in the practice sessions.

Dalgleish is a shrewd operator. He wouldn’t throw foursomes pairings together at random. This is one occasion when he more than likely made good pairings but the U.S. simply played better than GB&I.

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